Device for automatic regulation of clocks in connection with setting of the hands



Nov. 17, 1964 Filed July 22. 1957 TER 3,157,023

A. MUT DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC REGULATION OF CLOCKS IN CONNECTION WITH SETTING OF THE HANDS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

AUGUST MUTTER WILSON, LEWlS 8: MRAE ATTORNEYS Nov. 17, 1964 A. MUTTER 3,157,023

DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC REGULATION OF CLOCKS IN CONNECTION WITH SETTING OF THE HANDS Filed July 22, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.

FIG. 4

INVENTOR. AUGUST MUTTER WILSON, LEWIS 8: MRAE ATTORNEYS United States Patent F 3,157,023 DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC REGULATION OF CLQCKS EN CONNETION WITH SETTING THE HANDS August Mutter, Sehwenning-en (Neckar), Germany, as-

signor to Muiler-Schlenker, Uhrenfabrik, Sehwenningen (Neckar), Germany, and VDO Tachometer Werk Adolf Schindling G.m.b.H., Frankfurt am Main, Germany Fiied July 22, 1957, Ser. No. 673,369 Claims priority, application Germany July 23, 1956 2 Claims. ((11. 58-855) The object of this invention is a device for regulation of the escapement hair springs of a clock work which functions automatically simultaneously with the customary adjustment of the hands.

Devices of this kind have been known in which the hair spring regulator lever is moved proportionate to the setting made to the hands of the clock. But with such a device it is hardly possible to accurately adjust the hair spring lever to the right position, hence the amount of regulation is generally exceeded especially in the case of frequent re-setting of the hands and also such prior devices were inaccurate in that when the operators hand is removed from the adjustment knob to continue the twisting of the hands the automatic regulation is again brought into operation. There have been proposals to rectify this situation by making the automatic hair spring adjustment operative only at the full hour, but this has not proved satisfactory.

According to the present invention, the above discussed disadvantages are avoided by the present device for automatically adjusting the position of the hair spring adjustment lever. The present invention distinguishes itself in that the adjustment of the hair spring lever becomes increasingly less in proportion to the amount which the hands of the clock are turned, and also in that there is provided automatic locking means that prevents repetition of the adjustment of the hair spring lever except after a predetermined time lapse.

Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the drawings:

PEG. 1 is a top view of a device embodying the present invention, partly in cross section, with the conventional gear trains to the hands omitted snice they are well known in the art.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the device of FIG. 1 with portions of the mechanism being left out for clarity.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate another embodiment of the present invention with the FIGS. 3 and 4 corresponding respectively to views 1 and 2.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood t .at the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the conventional sliding shaft 8 and the knob 8a thereon are provided for moving the hands of the clock when it is desired to set the same. Movement of the shaft 8 outwardly moves the pinion gear '7 into engagement with the gear 16 and rotation of the knob then moves the hands of the clock as desired. This particular feature is conventional and is not a portion of the present invention.

3,i5?,ti23 Patented Nov. 17, 1964 At the rear end of the sliding shaft 8 is mounted a fine toothed crown wheel 6. A spindle 12 is mounted in the clockwork parallel to the shaft 8 and is provided with a cross arm 11. Toward the right end of this arm 11, as viewed in the drawings, is provided a thin flat spring 5 extending outwardly from the end thereof. A second thin fiat spring member 10 is provided which acts on the opposite end of arm 11 to position the fiat spring 5 so that the extension of said spring would cross the axis of sliding shaft 8. Thus, when the sliding shaft 8 is pulled outwardly the spring 5 engages in the teeth of the crown wheel 6 and is moved forward until it engages the teeth of a spur gear 4. In the drawings this position of the crown wheel 6 and the spring 5 are shown in dotted lines.

Obviously, rotation of the crown wheel 6 will translate into rotation of the spur gear 4 through the fiat spring 5 as the arm 11 moves in opposition to the spring 10. This movement of the spur gear 4 is transferred to a worm gear 2 through shaft 3 on which both gears 2 and 4 are afiixed. The worm gear 2 engages a ring gear segment 1 as is more apparent from FIG. 2 to effect the change in the tension of the hair spring thereby regulating the speed of the escapement.

The teeth of the crown wheel 6 will continue in engagement with the spring 5 only through a small portion of a complete revolution of the crown wheel 6 since the arm 11 rotates on the shaft 12 against the action of spring 10 thus allowing the spring 5 to move tangentially in relation to the crown wheel 6 until the spring 5 snaps off the teeth of the crown wheel and down the side of the crown wheel. The spring 5 can return to its original position only when the sliding shaft 8 slides backwardly as a result of release of the knob 8a and the action of spring 9 which normally holds shaft 8 in its rearward position. Backward movement of the crown wheel 6 slides it backwardly past the spring 5 so that spring 5 can return to its original position through the action of spring 16 on the arm 11.

In order to prevent repetition of the movement of the regulator member 1 immediately upon again sliding the shaft 3 outwardly and the rotation thereof, by the present invention a locking device is provided which can now be described. Briefly, this locking device temporarily prevents spring 5 from returning to its original position for a predetermined time period. For this purpose, a fiat spring 13 is afiixed to the shaft 12 at the opposite end from the arm 11. In normal position, the free end of this spring 13 rests in tension against the rounded head of a stud 14 affixed to a shaft 15. The shaft 15 is in turn geared to the driving shaft 13 of the clockwork by conventional means not shown, for a purpose which will become apparent hereinafter. When the flat spring 5 was initially engaged by the crown gear 6 and moved tangentially to crown gear 6 by rotation of shaft 8, the arm 11 rigidly affixed to shaft 12 rotated shaft 12 which rotation was transmitted to the spring 13. This small amount of rotation of the shaft 12 moves the end of spring 13 off of the rounded head of the stud 14 so that it is snapped down into engagement with the side of the stud 14. This positioning of the spring 13, as shown in dotted lines in FIGS. 1 and 2, prevents the shaft 12 from rotating and thus prevents the spring 5 from returning to position to be engaged by crown wheel 6. This is more apparent from FIG. 2 which shows the spring 5 in dotted line position with the end thereof below and thus out of engagement with crown Wheel 6. Thus, there can be no connection between the crown wheel 6 and the spur gear 4 and consequently no further rotation of the spur gear 4 to move the regulator 1.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the side of the stud 14 is provided with threads which are engaged by the edge e?! of the flat spring 13 when it snaps down along the side of the stud. Since the shaft 15 on which the stud 14 is affixed is rotating, the threads provided on the side of the stud 14 will feed the end of the flat spring 13 outwardly until it snaps back onto the rounded top of the stud 14 by reason of the action of spring 10 on shaft 12 through arm 11. The spring 5 then returns to its original position so that the crown wheel 6 will engage the same when the sliding shaft 8 is pulled outwardly.

In the event that it is desired to set the hands of the clock without adjusting the regulation of the hair spring, an eccentric 29 is provided mounted on shaft 19 and in engagement with the free end of spring 113. When turned by the associated knob mounted on shaft 19 the eccentric 20 pushes the end of the flat spring 13 off the top of the stud 14 consequently manually inactivating the automatic regulating mechanism.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawings, the second embodiment of the invention is illustrated. The hair spring regulator arm 1 is conventional but is provided with an extension carrying a pin 21 that engages the edge of cam 22. The cam 22 in this embodiment replaces the spur gear 4, shaft 3 and worm gear 2 of FIGS. 1 and 2. On the shaft 28 on which the cam 22 is mounted there is provided gear 23 which engages with gear 24 mounted on shaft 25. As shown in FIG. 3, mounted on the end of shaft 25 is a crown wheel 26 which approximately replaces the spur gear 4 of FIGS. 1 and 2. A coupling between crown gear 26 and crown wheel 6 is effected by the same means as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 in connection with the coupling between crown wheel 6 and spur gear 4. That is, when sliding shaft 8 is pulled outwardly the crown wheel 6 engages the flat spring 5 and pushes it into engagement with the teeth of crown gear 26. Also, engagement of the spring 5 between crown wheel 6 and crown gear 26 is prevented by the same mechanism described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2.

Further, if desired, the cam 22 can be mounted directly on shaft 25 thus eliminating the intermediary gears 24, 23. However, this results in a less fine degree of regulation but this less fine degree of regulation is oftentimes satisfactory.

Referring to FIG. 4 of the drawing, the unusual shape of cam 22 is obvious. This unusual shape of cam 22 results in a predetermined amount of regulation by each amount of revolution of the cam. Thus, each amount of rotation of the cam 22 does not always produce the same regulation of the hair spring of the escapement mechanisrn. The shaping of the cam 22 is determined by the amount it is desired to regulate the escapement at any fixed moment of revolution of the cam 22.

The essential advantages of the present invention for the automatic regulation of the hair spring of the clockwork simultaneously with the setting of the hands therefor consists in that the simultaneous regulation may be etfected at any time and that the proper positioning of the regulating lever is reached without over-regulating.

I claim:

1. A device for automatic and simultaneous regulation of the escapement hair spring of a clock in connection with the setting of the hands of said clock comprising: a rotatable adjusting shaft for setting the hands of said clock and a crown gear afiixed to the end of said adjusting shaft, a worm gear and shaft positioned at right angles to said adjusting shaft said worm gear being in engagement with regulating means for said hair spring, a spur gear affixed to the end of said worm gear shaft, a third shaft rotatably positioned parallel to said adjusting shaft and having a cross arm afiixed to one end thereof, a spring finger projecting from the end of said cross arm into the space between said crown gear and said spur gear to engage between the two when said adjusting shaft is operated, a leaf spring afiixed at one end to the opposite end of said third shaft, a stud having threads on the sides thereof and a rounded head against which the free end of said leaf spring is normally engaged, means connecting said stud with the drive shaft of said clock to rotate said stud, and spring means engaging said cross arm to urge said spring finger carried by said cross arm into a position wherein the extension of said spring finger would intersect the axis of said adjusting shaft.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 and further characterized in that manually operable means engaging the free end of said leaf spring is provided to force the same off the head of said threaded stud and into engagement with the threads on the side thereof.

References (liter! in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,554,029 Holdman May 22, 1951 2,858,029 Rabinow Oct. 28, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 287 282 Switzerland July 1, 1953 

1. A DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC AND SIMULTANEOUS REGULATION OF THE ESCAPEMENT HAIR SPRING OF A CLOCK IN CONNECTION WITH THE SETTING OF THE HANDS OF SAID CLOCK COMPRISING: A ROTATABLE ADJUSTING SHAFT FOR SETTING THE HANDS OF SAID CLOCK AND A CROWN GEAR AFFIXED TO THE END OF SAID ADJUSTING SHAFT, A WORM GEAR AND SHAFT POSITIONED AT RIGHT ANGLES TO SAID ADJUSTING SHAFT SAID WORM GEAR BEING IN ENGAGEMENT WITH REGULATING MEANS FOR SAID HAIR SPRING, A SPUR GEAR AFFIXED TO THE END OF SAID WORM GEAR SHAFT, A THIRD SHAFT ROTATABLY POSITIONED PARALLEL TO SAID ADJUSTING SHAFT AND HAVING A CROSS ARM AFFIXED TO ONE END THEREOF, A SPRING FINGER PROJECTING FROM THE END OF SAID CROSS ARM INTO THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID CROWN GEAR AND SAID SPUR GEAR TO ENGAGE BETWEEN THE TWO WHEN SAID ADJUSTING SHAFT IS OPERATED, A LEAF SPRING AFFIXED AT ONE END TO THE OPPOSITE END OF SAID THIRD SHAFT, A STUD HAVING THREADS ON THE SIDES THEREOF AND A ROUNDED HEAD AGAINST WHICH THE FREE END OF SAID LEAF SPRING IS NORMALLY ENGAGED, MEANS CONNECTING SAID STUD WITH THE DRIVE SHAFT OF SAID CLOCK TO ROTATE SAID STUD, AND SPRING MEANS ENGAGING SAID CROSS ARM TO URGE SAID SPRING FINGER CARRIED BY SAID CROSS ARM INTO A POSITION WHEREIN THE EXTENSION OF SAID SPRING FINGER WOULD INTERSECT THE AXIS OF SAID ADJUSTING SHAFT. 